Amad finish in the Manchester derby while O’Neil and Martin bid farewell - Football Weekly

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

A ludicrous final two minutes as the Etihad as Manchester United scored twice, leaving Pepin City with just one win and eight defeats in their last 11.

So, so bad from Matthias Nunes.

How do we all feel about this new normal?

And then to some sackings, Russell Martin at Southampton after Spurs just scored at will in the first half at St.

Mary's.

And Gary O'Neill from Wolves.

He sounded so defeated while his players scrapped and fought, but only after the final whistle.

Matthias Cunha's spectacle stealing.

How long before he gives someone a peanut or flushes the bloke's head down a toilet?

A creditable point for 10-man Liverpool at home to Fulham.

Chelsea squeeze over the line against Brentford to go within two points at the top.

We'll remember to talk Palace after an excellent win at Brighton.

Did any Martinez make the greatest ever save in the history of football?

Or was it just that it was this weekend?

After all the Premier League stuff, a fit bar corner after a breathtaking League Cup final.

Some exciting news on David Squire's new book, Your Questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hello, Max.

Hello, Dan Bardell.

Good morning.

And welcome back, Robin Cowan.

Congratulations on the birth of baby two.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yes, I guess I need to be mother of two, Robin, now, not commentator.

This is my identity.

That's how the tabloid press would describe me.

Proud mum.

And when I'm cancelled, that's how they'll describe me.

The pre-pod chat was two people very boring about parenting.

No one had to listen to it apart from Barry and Dan, of course.

Let's start at the Etihad.

Socrates says, will Barry apologize to Sir Big Jim, Big Dave, Lil Wilcox, DJ Omo Barada after this monumental win took United from 14th to 12th.

Literal marginal gains.

Tangi says, was City United the worst APL match ever for 87 minutes, speaking as a United fan.

I mean, this game, Barry, was it was so bad until two minutes to go.

And as producer Joel rightly points out, if it wasn't for the profile of the game and the situation of these clubs, it would probably get 30 seconds at the end before we spent a long time reading an email about a vasectomy.

But given where both these sides are, it was an extraordinary two minutes the last couple of minutes more than made up for a game

well no i actually didn't more than make up for it because

i was at the sit through the preceding 87 minutes uh a game that was just terribly low in quality between

two once mighty teams whose confidence appeared to be near rock bottom and they were afraid to take risks they were being

trying to be uncharacteristically safe, particularly Manchester City, compared to the city we're used to seeing or have been used to seeing in

you know up until about two months ago.

Probably the most interesting talking points

from the opening 87 minutes were the omission of Marcus Ratchford and Alejandro Garnacho from United's match day squad and Ruben Emeryn's explanation for the absence in saying basically that that they weren't training well and they he seemed to be questioning their attitude and then the Kyle Walker

comedy collapse where he tried to get

Erasmus Hoyland sent off which was I would imagine Kyle will be quite embarrassed when he looks back on that and then everything changed

when obviously City took the lead and I suppose it was indicative of the quality of the game that their goal came from a poorly taken short corner.

That Kevin De Bruyne's cross had an element of luck insofar as it took a deflection.

Josco Garliol scored with a fairly straightforward header.

He wasn't under much pressure.

And then Amadiello sort of flicked the switch with three minutes to go, won the penalty.

quite cleverly.

It was a ridiculous penalty for City to concede.

And you could see Pep Guardiola

going into head scratch mode on the touchline, grabbing his pate with both hands.

And

then Ahmed Diello won it with a terrific, terrific moment of quality.

I would say

United were probably just about

worthy winners, but yeah, it was a dreadful game.

I mean, it is worth saying, Robin, isn't it?

That Ahmed, the second goal, he takes it.

It's just, and especially after so much dross, like the the exquisiteness of the skill is kind of like emphasized even more yeah like a sort of flower growing out of a turd

yes yeah no it was a gorgeous goal uh it kind of uh

it really made edison look

really silly didn't he just to boop over the top and then to sort of really it was the concentration to watch it as it came down narrow angle and he and he slossed it home it's just i still can't quite believe what i'm seeing though from city um i think it's going to take a while but this is real, isn't it?

They're really

in a bad way.

Eight defeats in 11.

And

yeah, I think, I mean, they having taken the lead, you know, they weren't great.

As we said, neither side were great.

But I just think Manchester United weren't, they flipped a switch.

It's just they expose their real fragility at the moment, City.

The Nunes thing was almost it in microcosm, wasn't it?

A little mistake, a sort of short back pass, and then trying to make up for it by just bulldozing into him.

We've seen it happen a lot, haven't we?

But it's it's just kind of, you know, heads gone, isn't it?

Yeah, I love that.

I must make up for this mistake.

And how can I do it?

By going as simply as fast as I can.

Does that make it worse?

It's hilarious.

It'll be right.

And Dan, we haven't, I mean, we didn't talk about the Juventus defeat because of the Guardian Star strike.

But

as Robin says, this is...

This is real.

Just one win in 11, eight defeats in 11.

Like, this form is bad for anyone.

Yeah, and the game was very much like a mid-table clash.

It felt

very devoid of quality.

But I think I've probably been on this show maybe three times in the last seven, eight weeks.

And every time we spoke about Man City, I've come on and said, it'll be okay.

It'll turn.

They'll go on a run.

This is what they always do.

But as Robin says, eight defeats in 11.

This is uncharted territory.

I watched Match of the Day 2 last night, and they lost like seven games in the last 105 or something before that.

What we are seeing now is absolutely ridiculous.

And they just don't look right.

Fundamentally, they don't look right.

Edison looks a shadow of his former self.

He's not been there maybe for maybe for the last year and a half, Edison.

I actually think at the moment Ortega's a safer pair of hands in goal.

I'm surprised they've gone back to Edison because I think they actually won a game when Ortega was in goal.

The Kyle Walker thing was embarrassing.

He fell off a cliff.

That was the fastest he's done anything this season.

Kyle Walker when he went down from Hoyland.

Well, it's not a head, but is it?

I don't know what to call it.

Hoyland going head to head with him.

And I just think Vardio seems the only source of goals as well.

He seems to be the new Haaland.

Unless he scores, nobody seems to score for Manchester City.

And he's either playing left-back or centre-back.

So there's just so much wrong at the same time for Manchester City.

You can put a little bit of it, well, quite a lot of it, down to obviously Roderie not being there because their record without Roderie has never been great if you look at the percentages.

But it's more than that now.

And I'm a bit wary about saying this because my team's playing them next weekend, but you kind of don't know when this is going to stop yeah and it's it's fascinating Barry you alluded to it earlier about just seeing a man city side being wondered up and just trying to sort of cling on seeing them just hoying it long to Erling Harland and I wondered like obviously we mentioned Roger every time but just the fact that what confidence can do to even and it's more than just that but but

what confidence how important that is to any elite sports team yeah well when things repeatedly go wrong, you start to

expect them to go wrong, and then it turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy because you're so nervous, you make mistakes, and things go wrong.

And it's very hard to get out of that.

I think we all thought when they beat Forrest, you know, oh, that's it, they're back, they're back in the room now, they're okay they're going to be okay, but I think Forrest gave them a too easy a game that time and didn't prey on their very obvious weaknesses, which is kind of strange considering how good Forrest are at the moment.

Phil Fon alluded to it in his poach match interview.

He just said, Look, we're expecting things to go wrong at the minute, and they are.

And

you know, when you see Erling Harland just booting the ball from inside his own penalty into the other half of the pitch to clear it,

you go, This isn't the city used to seeing but

it is fun it's great fun watching this total disintegration uh probably not fun for city fans but city

i i'd be interested to hear the thoughts of city fans of a certain age who who are used to you know seeing city be rubbish this they've been here before but without hello darkness my old friend yeah

you know well i'm surprised well maybe they have given it an airing the the we're not really here song or chant they used to have when they were down in the third division.

Yeah, younger city fans will just be baffled by what's going on at the minute.

And their older counterparts, their dads will be saying, don't worry, son,

there could be plenty more gas in this explosion.

Sure, but like young city fans, but the whole city squad and Pep Guardiola is like,

I don't know what's happening here.

You know, it's quite interesting quotes after, you know, I'm the boss, I'm the manager, I have to find a solution.

I'm not good enough.

It's as simple as that.

I'm not doing well.

That's the truth.

Meanwhile, Robin, Manchester United, and we can't read too much into those two minutes.

And as Bat said,

the surprises were Rashford, you know, totally out of the squad.

I saw he sort of posted on Instagram, great work, boys, a picture from inside like his living room with the TV, you know, sort of, I don't know if that was...

pointedly saying, I'm still supporting you or, you know, he had nothing else to do, so he might as well just stick a post on Instagram.

And Garnacho, and I don't know if you, how you might, I feel like Amarim is communicating everything really well.

Like the results haven't been great apart from this one,

but you sense that he, he, he's got something about him and it's going to take a lot of time, not to see it on the pitch yet, but just in the way he is managing this situation.

Yeah, I think so.

I think you're right.

It's the way he kind of communicated that decision in particular.

You know, obviously that could have seriously backfired because you look at their bench without those two.

Big gamble.

You know, they had Anthony and xerxe and then that's basically it sort of in the forward line to bring on um you know a big call but he kind of made it very very clear and he was really at pains to say this is not a disciplinary issue you know and you know tomorrow's a new day a new week and they have another chance and i just think that's you don't really hear that much usually it's kind of quite black and white it's like no they or they didn't train well blah blah blah and then we all kind of explode and read too much into it the only thing i would say

maybe it was a lost in translation a little bit, maybe, but talking about their dress sense or something.

Yeah, that was weird.

I just think we need to be a bit careful about that, especially, you know, I think there's been a lot about Marcus Rashford and his supposed lifestyle.

And again, it's kind of like only certain players, and I think we all know who I'm talking, what sort of players I'm talking about, get that sort of thrown at them.

So that's the only thing.

But, but, you know, he's been decisive without being kind of...

I guess an arsehole about it.

He's said, look, you know, I'm open.

They're here.

But I would say if they did lose that, I think obviously questions really would have been asked, like, oh, where was the impact coming from the bench?

I think that's the crucial thing, like the man management aspect of it.

I think you're right, maybe the getting change thing did get lost in translation a little bit.

But he's kind of, you know, when Sancho was disregarded by Ten Hag, I don't think that was handled very well.

He's already said they'll basically be back in the squad next week.

So he's kind of showed them who's boss, but hasn't alienated them.

And that just feels like a different mindset to what with the kind of thing we were seeing under Eric Ten Hag.

Hagen with Rashford obviously this isn't a disciplinary issue I don't think he's going to get fined or anything he's just been left out the match day squad and I love Marcus Rashford I love love a lot about him and I think he has become a scapegoat for Manchester United failings a number of times but there has been these kind of elements in the last few years where he has been left out of squad because he's been late and things like that that it has kind of crept into him a little bit like Marcus Rashford and he he needs to get himself back on not I don't want to say the straight and arrow because I don't mean it like that but I can't think of a better phrase But he needs to kind of get himself back into gear because I think this manager could be really, really good for him.

I think he's going to be good for Manchester United as well.

Let's do the two sackings.

Fascinating that they happened both before a podcast.

We don't know this is uncharted territory for us.

Will we be able to talk about managers losing their jobs, not in a voice note format?

Let's start at St.

Mary's Bury.

Southampton-nil Spurs five.

They were one down after 37 seconds.

And then basically, every time Spurs attacked in the first half, they scored.

Can Russell Martin have any complaints for this sacking?

I don't think so.

Like a lot of managers who come up from the championship, he's

basically been a victim of his own success.

Southampton came up through the playoffs.

They didn't recruit particularly well.

We said it in the preseason preview that they would struggle unless they got signings in.

because they're pretty toothless up front and their defence is really weak and his

ongoing determination to try and play the ball out from the back hasn't worked.

He's married to this style of play.

Not completely married.

He has had flings with getting it launched and dalliances with

playing long balls occasionally.

But he is more or less wedded to this style that his players aren't good enough.

to carry out.

They conceded yesterday before any of their players had actually touched the ball,

whereas most Spurs players, I think, had had a touch of it before their opener.

And the floodgates opened.

He found himself in this unedifying situation where he's having an argument with Suleimane, who he substituted after 15 minutes.

It's a tactical switch, but you know, Suleimane was understandably aggrieved at being scapegoated for, I don't know what, I think there were 3-0 down at that stage.

Yeah, at 3-0 down, they had a decent chance with Chadam Armstrong.

Didn't put away because Adam Armstrong doesn't tend to score too many goals, and that was that.

5-0 at halftime.

And lucky for Southampton, Spurs sort of settled for that and didn't really make much of an effort in the second half.

That's a disgrace.

I think

they shouldn't get three points for that.

That is an absolute disgrace.

I was getting really excited.

You know, it's Southampton again.

It's, you know, this could be the 10.

They've had a couple of 9-0s.

This could be the 10.

And, you know, I think Spurs, you know, that's, I think that's a real disgrace, what they did there.

You know, it's so typical.

Yeah, I did think Ange might be the one to go for it.

And I was like, there's a lot of football, right?

You've got no fit players.

Please take your foot off the gas.

But I thought he might be the principled man to do it.

I mean,

they kept down cutting to Russell Martin, staring at an iPad.

I was thinking, what can it possibly, what can he possibly see on that guy?

Yeah, we're defensively, we're, we're fallible.

Then he went down the tunnel at halftime and then Spurs scored again, and someone probably had to tell him.

And look, I'm not sure I've got the appetite for that, another conversation about managers adapting and changing their principles, but I'm asking a question a bit like that, which is, when a team comes up from the championship,

isn't the key to find a way to stay in the league somehow for a year or two or three, consolidate and then, you know, Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, et cetera, get there, stick in somehow, and then explode into whatever football you want to play yeah Brentford don't play the same way that they played in the championship they were quite an expansive side in the championship but they've had to adapt and and change what they do in the Premier League and they've done it very well you still see glimpses of what they did in the championship because obviously Thomas Frank's got his philosophy but he's an example of a manager that has changed and he's had longevity in the Premier League now I just think Russell Martin is almost trying to look after himself rather than look after the club because he thinks by playing this brand of football or my feeling is he thinks by playing this brand of football and having his principles, when he inevitably leaves Southampton, it's going to get him another job because he's got this philosophy.

But you're actually harming your club because if you look at the players Southampton have got, there's no way that defence is capable of playing that brand of football, playing out from the back.

And we've seen time and time again, they get caught.

I watched them live at Villa Park a few weeks ago.

you know, just the determination to play out from the back.

They played themselves into trouble so many times and just being stuck on this what this one philosophy it doesn't work and other managers have gone before him as well and it's a really really bad weekend for ipad watching managers because gary o'neill and and russell martin both to go at the same weekend both big fans of the ipad in in the 90 minutes it's a it's a terrible weekend i'm going to say that yesterday the the defeat to the spurs was nothing to do with philosophy though was it they were just astonishingly bad um and just just really bad true they didn't get caught they're probably the first game they didn't get caught playing out the back

Yeah.

He finally adapted and he got the second game away.

That's the thing.

It's like,

I think that's the difference is that I think

most fans want a philosophy from

their team.

Obviously,

they want to give themselves a fighting chance of staying up, but it's just turned,

it's just shambolic.

They've been shambolic pretty much since they started the season, unfortunately.

You know, I admire Russell Martin for having to stick into his guns, guns, etc.

And he's a lovely man with a magnificent beard, but he's just, they looked silly, didn't they?

It was kind of ridiculous.

It was getting ridiculous.

And yesterday was kind of the peak of that.

And I think that the main thing is that, you know, they had a, you know, people bringing in their own homemade signs calling him to go.

I mean, you kind of can't really survive that.

That sign was so lazy.

That was one of the laziest signs I've ever seen.

Just put in RM.

At least give you, at least call him by his name.

Was it typed as well?

They didn't even draw it by hand, I don't think.

RM get out of our club, it was, wasn't it?

Yeah, that's a lazy banner that was.

I suppose you could re you could reuse it for other RMs

in the football.

Yeah, I can't think of any.

Who could they get in next?

Robbie Musto.

Robbie Musto get out of our club.

Really good.

Danny Royal is the favourite to take over.

Carlos Corbran as well.

And then David Moyes, Olegna Solskjaer, amongst others.

I mean, look, from a Spurs point of view, they needed a win massively.

Hard to read a lot into it, but I thought Jed Spence was good.

Hasn't played a lot.

Archie Gray, Lucas Bergwell looked good, and James Madison's second finish was great.

And they were a bit more direct, I thought.

And yeah, Joel, producer Joel writing Aaron Ramsdale, must regret agreeing to do the TV coverage of this.

Let's do Gary O'Neill then.

Wolves lost two one at home to Ipswich.

Last minute winner for Jack Taylor.

A wonderful moment for him.

And he really, he really enjoyed that.

I'm not sure I've ever been as excited as he was about anything in my existence i was hugely impressed by the manner in which he came out of a knee slide and without breaking stride vaulted the advertising hoarding having already taken off his shirt just the fluidity of the movement was it was almost baletic sure and for a man that doesn't score a lot of goals as well yeah it was just it's just instinct he could have done himself a serious mischief if that had gone wrong uh wolves have only won two out of 16 league league games this season.

Second from bottom, they have nine points.

We know Kilman left in the summer and Netto without really being replaced.

Is this even less of a surprise, Dan, than Russell Martin?

I mean, he sounded so defeated afterwards and you know, threw his players under the bus as well.

Yeah, I think he probably talked himself out of it a little bit at the end of the game.

And when your players are literally fighting everyone at the end of the game, I think

you've got problems.

I think ideally, Wolves maybe would have got rid of him a game or two ago, but it sounds like like they've sounded out managers and didn't have the right fit, but I think it got to the point of no return.

I think the Wolves fans are very, very angry with the ownership and the way the club's been run, and rightly so, because if you continually sell your best players and you don't replace them, we've seen it with many teams before.

You're going to circle the drain and eventually you're going to go down.

And it looks like that's what's going to happen to Wolves this season.

But I think they also...

They wanted Gary O'Neill out.

They maybe weren't as vocal in game about Gary O'Neill as they were about the ownership.

But from speaking to Wolves fans, I think they definitely think that a change is needed, that he's too rigid.

I think Wolves have got some good players.

I think there is something there for Wolves, and it's going to sound stupid after they're fighting everyone, but I think they're an honest bunch of players.

I don't think there's a lack of work rate or a lack of work ethic at all with Wolves.

I just think they've been left short in certain areas defensively.

I think they were short in defence anyway, and then to sell Kilman and not replace him and then get a season ending injury to another centre-back, that's crucial.

You're going to ship goals, but I think it's it's 20-set-piece goals that Wolves have conceded this season.

If you include penalties, that's far too high.

And I think the Ryan's been on the wall for Gary O'Neill for a while.

I don't think really the ownership had a choice other than to sack him at this point.

The one thing I would say is I think this was one of their better performances, and they were well on top in the second half until they conceded that lately

winner, Ipswich winner.

But

O'Neill, like these players have lost all sense of discipline.

He's obviously completely fed up with them.

And having signed a four-year deal in August, I suspect he won't be too gutted to have got the sack a week before Christmas.

He can have a nice few weeks off before he ends up on Monday night football or some other show, go reminding everyone that he's here and available.

Dan said they were an honest bunch of players, but Barry, d do an honest bunch of players steal a man's spectacles?

As the bespectacled member of this panel, did you f feel sort of personally affronted when Matthias Kunya did that to one of your own?

Well,

it's a very odd thing to do.

Even a child to do, it's a very odd thing to do.

And for a grown man to do it to another grown man who he's never presumably met before

and has no real beef with.

Yeah, it was strange.

And one presumes he will get punished for it, a whacking fine and a suspension.

And

that's really not doing Wolves any favours.

I think Southampton are doomed.

I still think Wolves, there's hope there.

But they need their best players.

And Matthias Kuna is by a mile their best player.

Yeah.

Well, Ryan Aknouri, Ryan Aknouri as well is quite good.

And he was really furious he was incredibly cross afterwards and he's suspended as well because he got sent off uh the one thing i would say everyone goes on about max kilman and what a great loss he is and he was really good for was

but he's been pretty shockingly in a west ham shirt as well i think so i'm not sure he would have made that huge a difference he's just a centre back though isn't he they just don't have they don't have centre backs i think i think lameen has played there at times a lot scraping the barrel for centre halves and i agree with you kilman hasn't been brilliant for west ham but I kind of feel like that's a West Ham thing rather than a Kilman thing.

He was their captain.

And if you look at the loss of leaders over the years as well, they've obviously had to change captain again recently.

Kilman's gone, Cody was a massive part of that dressing room.

I thought it was strange when they let him go.

I just think they're kind of devoid of leadership and direction at Wolves.

And I think they're going to go down because when a club's run like that from the top, it filters down.

And as I say, we've seen it so many times before.

I think, obviously, they're going to change manager, but I think it's going to be a big ass for Wolves to get out of it.

But I called them to go down last season as Wolves fans like to remind me, and that was, that was wrong.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't feel they've circled the drain more just like I'm trying to think of the analogy.

Got straight down.

Just

like straight down.

Conor Miller, the journalist writing, but following these two sackings, there are only two English managers in the Premier League.

There are 16 Italian managers in Serie A, 15 Spanish ones in the Liga, 10 French managers in Liga, and nine German managers in the Bundesliga.

Robin,

what does this tell us?

Is it just the Premier League's got the most money, so it will attract the best from everywhere, and we just have to accept that?

Or is it a failure of the coaching of coaches?

Yeah, I think it is.

Yeah.

I mean, you basically have to get promoted almost, don't you, to

become a, if you're an English manager, usually.

So you've got, you know, Chris Wilder, et cetera, you know.

No, I think it is.

It's like the England debate, isn't it?

The sort of player ID in the development has gone very well, but the coaching hasn't.

And that's why there was a big debate about

should there be you know people unhappy that we've got now a foreign guy in charge of the England team, but you think

who's better?

So, I think I think it is.

I think something needs to change, and we need to concentrate more on bringing up really good English coaches because, yeah, I think

it is that's very striking, that statistic, I think.

And it's a real shame.

That'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll begin with Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Fulham.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Week.

Lead to Anfield, then Liverpool 2, Fulham 2.

Brilliant game of football.

Liverpool playing for so long with 10 men, coming back twice.

And perhaps Dan, the greatest compliment for them is that

you probably, if you didn't know, or if there wasn't a little red card by their team name in the graphic, you probably wouldn't have known they were a man down.

Yeah, I think Slot deserves credit.

He changed things up quite a lot even through the game.

Like he changed his defensive structure, he changed the defenders that were on the pitch, but yet they just looked really, really stable.

He said afterwards that they're actually better with 10 men than they were with 11 as well.

And it's just the sign of a good team and the sign of a good manager.

And they've come up against a team in Fulham who I think are a really, really good team.

I think Marco Silver's incredibly underrated.

I think the job he's done there across three seasons isn't spoken about enough.

I think Liverpool, they just seem to be finding a way.

But we used to say that about Jürgen Klopp, but they're almost doing it in a more efficient and stable way now under Arnes Schlott.

And they're outright favourites for the title at the moment, going going really really well in the in the Champions League haven't actually got the biggest depth in in squad other than the attack but Slott just seems to be making everything work at the moment I think his first kind of five months in in the job has been so so impressive I think you know Liverpool are in a really really good place and if you're still getting a result when you've had 10 men for the most of the game it's the sign of a good team and a good structure at the red card Robin when I saw it I was like well that's obviously a red card until your good colleagues at match of the day categorically didn't think it was a red card.

I suppose there is a philosophical question.

Can you be sent off for denying a goal scoring opportunity if there is a goal scoring opportunity in the passage of play?

So I actually don't know how I feel now.

No, I see, I definitely saw their point, but you have to refer to the absolute guru of the laws of the game, Dale Johnson, on ESPN, which I immediately did.

And he explained it really well.

I basically said the goal scoring chance belongs to the player, not the team.

So the goal scoring chance was Harry Wilson who was taken out.

So even though the advantage was played, you still get the red card.

So I get that, yes, some people might not be happy with that.

But I mean, it was a red card, wasn't it?

When you kind of don't look at what happened next.

So,

but I get it.

You kind of think, well, why have you got the red card?

And you've also had a chance at goal as well.

Yeah, no, I understand that.

But yeah, so

that is the law.

And if you, you know.

Gary Lineker wasn't happy.

He's gone a bit rogue, hasn't he?

I think he knows he's leaving.

He's G-Mob happy.

Andy Robertson not having a great time.

Meanwhile, Barry, the other left back in this game, Anthony Robinson, who I sort of put in three players that you absolutely love with Lewis Cook and Javi Simmons, like your favourite.

If you were to pick your three greatest players of all time, it would be those three.

But he was brilliant all game.

And I see rumours, you know, that people might be in for him in January.

You sort of I wonder if Liverpool might be in for him.

Well, I think there was talk that he might be that Liverpool were after him during the summer, and it didn't happen.

And Andy Robertson is a conspicuous weak link in that Liverpool side at the minute.

Um, I don't know if he's just passed his pomp or in a run of poor form, but he's not having a good time with it at the moment.

And Anthony Robinson has throughout this sea, he was Fulham's player of the season last

year.

He improves every season, and this season he's been better again.

The way he combines with Alex Awobi down that left wing, whether it's running on overlaps, underlaps, all while in this game, trying to contain Mo Sala, who is one of the players of the season as well.

He was just outstanding in this game.

At 2-2, he had a brilliant block on Virgil Van Dijk.

So he's excellent in defence.

He's brilliant going forward.

he's got some engine on him.

Like, he just runs and runs and runs, he's really quick.

I'm not sure how long he's left in his contract, but I would imagine if it's more than two years, then Fulham could name their price.

Um, I'd say Fulham fans would be gutted to lose him, but uh,

he's I can't think of many players in the Premier League who've been better than him this season in any position.

I think he was one million pounds as well when they when they signed him from from Wigan, and he's just been consistent for Fulham for three years and i think that that stems from being at a club that's being managed well in a stable club and actually managing your own career really well because a lot of players they they jump and make a move before they're ready but actually having three seasons in the premier league playing for fulham now probably is the right time for him to make the step up and the fulham fans are a sensible bunch they'll know that he's probably got ambitions beyond them but they've had three really really good years and he's attacking output this season that's what he's added to his game this season i think he's always been a very capable left back for fulham in the premier league but it is that attacking output.

He seems to have more freedom down the left-hand side this season as well.

And if you actually look at his numbers from the game against Liverpool, he was first for duels one, first for chances created, first for interceptions, first for tackles one, first for accurate crosses and first for assists, getting two in the game.

You know, for a left back, albeit they were playing against ten men, but we've just said how good the ten men were, you know, you were basically doing everything that you can do as a fullback at that point.

So so for me, he is one of the best fullbacks in the league at the moment.

I'm all for, you know, going with the times with modern football parlance, but when anyone mentions Jules 1, I just think to, you know, two highwaymen, you know, with guns or two men on horses, someone throwing down a glove, you know, as Anthony Robinson shoots Diogo Jotta, and that's it.

Wearing one of those French aristocrat wigs.

I always think of gladiators with those big cotton buds.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The pugil stick, the pugil sticks, of course.

Worth saying, the ball from Salah to Gakpo is just the most inviting kick of a football I've seen.

And Jotter is a wonderful player and a great finish.

Let's go to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea within two points, then of Liverpool.

They beat Brentford 2-1.

They probably deserve this Robin, I think.

Just got over the line.

Sancho's made a good save.

You know, Brentford hit the bar, but probably on balance, they deserve victory.

Yeah, yeah, I think so.

Yeah, although, as you said, Brentford did have their chances.

And actually, that was the first time that Chelsea had got anything out of Brentford at Stamford Bridge.

So it's a

strange quirk.

Although Brentford's away form this season has been absolutely shocking.

It's one point from a possible 24 at the moment, but I think the best home record in the league.

So yeah, very, very odd.

But they were pretty good Brentford.

And is Chelsea just on a roll, aren't they?

That's the thing.

Five-match winning streak now in the Premier League.

You know, they've got players high on confidence.

Kukarair, once again, in the you know, the headlines

for the great header.

He's such a shit, isn't he?

I mean, like, I really

I really like him, but he's sort of the 2024 Robbie Savage, isn't he?

If he was in your team, you'd love him, but he's so annoying.

And yeah, and his facial expression is always like, what, what, what?

I haven't done the thing.

And it's, yeah, you know exactly what you've done, but he was sent off, wasn't he, at the end of this game.

So he's going to be suspended for the next one.

But it was a great header.

And then another really, really, yeah, another really, really confident finish from Nicholas Jackson.

Again,

it's just remarkable.

He was kind of considered a bit of a joke figure last season because he was like constantly offside.

Um, but he's full of confidence, and yeah, I mean, what else can you say about Chelsea, except I mean, I'm definitely one person they're making look very, very silly.

And not the only one, yes.

Kukara was sent off after the game for just having a bad attitude, which I didn't know was a law, but like seems to be a good thing.

Again, it's like the stealing the glasses, it's like this very kid stuff, isn't it?

This weekend, bad attitude.

Must be a record for sending offs after the game this weekend.

Must be.

Just on the subject you briefly alluded to there, I think it's all right to go, oh, Chelsea are good, they're title contenders, and still think their recruitment policy is completely scattergun and ridiculous.

Do you think it's a bit of a fluke, do you think?

Both things can be true.

Do we think that it was a bit of a fluke then?

It's kind of just come together.

Maresk has done a good job with what he's been given and like, and the recruitment was a bit, it was like something's going to stick, basically.

Well, I think Rory Smith was making this point somewhere

on the Monday Night Club, probably, that

if you buy enough good players, some of them will be good.

It doesn't mean it's good for the game, right?

Because there will be players who are sort of stockpiled, or you talk about Anthony Robinson, like managing his career, like players saying, well, I've got to take this money, or this will this opportunity ever come up again?

And then they sort of disappear without a trace, or they're shipped out on loan.

And

it can be simultaneously, they can be good, they could win the league, league.

Maresca could do a great job.

And yet it's not great for the game.

Obviously, Chelsea fans won't care, right?

But I think all those things

could be possible.

I think they did care, though, didn't they?

They cared last season and the season before about what they were doing.

They didn't like it.

And they've probably probably, as you would, they've probably gone a little bit quieter about it now because they're doing well.

But Chelsea fans themselves weren't happy with what they were doing over the last few years.

Yeah, the Connor Gallagher situation wasn't great, was it?

They didn't like that.

Yeah.

But

if you're top of the league, you know,

what do you go to football for, right?

Like you've got other things to worry about, I guess.

But yeah, it's interesting to see how far it goes, doesn't it?

Gavin says, will you actually talk about Palace?

Yeah, Brighton won Crystal Palace three.

We did forget to mention them last week when they drew with Manchester City.

Fortunately, Barry got us out of a hole by apologising for not mentioning them, even though we didn't mention them.

They were brilliant.

First team to win at Brighton this season.

Palace's first win in six against Brighton.

First time they've scored three this season.

First back-to-back away wins in 18 months.

And Robins Mila Saab had a wonderful game.

He did, yeah.

I just, I remember

when he was at Watford and he was really considered to be the next big thing, and it kind of petered out a little bit.

Um, who was it?

Him, Emmanuel Dennis, and yeah, uh,

John Barnes, who was the other one, John Barnes, yeah, yeah, Luther Blissett.

Who was the third in that triumvirate?

Anyway, sorry, carry on.

Wasn't it Daney, was it?

No, no, Was it De Lafeu, maybe?

No, maybe not.

No, wasn't it?

Wasn't it?

They had a lot of players.

They had a lot of die.

Yeah, but Chris and Palace fans would be loving this.

But yeah, no, you're right, Max.

They had a really good season, didn't they?

I think they, was that the one they beat Liverpool when Liverpool were on a brilliant roll?

They had a really good result there, and it was really eye-catching.

And yeah, no, I...

He's kind of, he went away and now he's come back.

And yeah, he had a really good, really good game.

I like the fact he pointed at his face after he scored.

That was quite nice.

And yeah, just, you know, they started so badly, didn't they?

Crystal Palace.

Really, you know, terrible to start with.

But I think Glasnar's clearly got substance.

One defeat in eight now.

The only thing I would say is that I saw Nick Godwin from BBC London quoting that apparently Glasnar said, Will Hughes came off tired and he said he's not as young as he used to be.

And I looked up and he's 29.

He was born in 1995.

He's been around for a long time, Will Hughes.

but he's 29 you can't be you can't be throwing that line

not another watford all boy yeah absolutely gio pedro jow pedro who was on the pitch obviously he was the three with with emmanuel dennis and and this minus star um yeah will hughes had a good i mean he had a great game against city as well i think he's one of those centimids who sort of will him excuse the pun to be great like i like like a touch a touch player of a palace and and like like a lot of people who don't care about this rivalry or don't get it don't care.

But you could just see, Dan, for the Palace fans, this was, I mean, this was everything.

Yeah, limbs in the away.

And I think people say it's one of those derbies that I've been told the story of why it's a derby about 50,000 times, and I still can't remember

why it's a derby, which is a bit strange.

It's an old row dating back to the 70s, I think, between Alan Mullery, who was manager of Brighton at the time, and Terry Venables, who was manager of Palace.

And someone threw a cup of coffee over Alan Mullery.

He took some change out of his pocket, and it was at Sellers Park, I think, threw it in the ground and going, I wouldn't give 10 bob for this club, blah, blah, blah.

And that's apparently how it started.

As good as any.

To answer the original question, yep, but Palace,

it means a lot to him.

It's a great win for them.

They've had a difficult start to the season, but I think that's come from...

Glasnar is a really, really good manager.

The way they ended last season, they looked so, so good.

And I think they've they've had a difficult summer losing a couple of players and then having to amalgamate a lot of new players coming in.

So I think it was always going to be a slow start for Crystal Palace, but they're showing their quality now.

They're starting to pick up results again.

They're not going to be in any relegation danger at all.

They should be pushing towards the top half with some of the players they've got.

Crystal Palace, it's just, I think they had to be patient and wait for it to come together.

And credit to the Palace ownership and the fans never really lost trust and faith either.

They everyone's been patient and now I think they'll reap the rewards and probably have a good Christmas period.

Newcastle for Leicester 0.

Barry, what did you make of this?

I thought Leicester were dismal.

I thought Newcastle were very good.

Again, it's an up-and-down season from them.

It was quite interesting from a Newcastle point of view, insofar as they have certain players that

their fans, I think, feel should have been moved on and replaced with better quality

individuals during the summer.

They haven't really signed anyone who's Premier League ready in the past past two, maybe three windows.

And Jacob Murphy is very much one of these players who, you know, along with say Sean Longstaff, who are fans kind of appreciate their effort, but go, you know, we'd rather an upgrade on you, which I suppose is understandable given all the money they have, despite not being allowed to spend it.

And

I suppose the microcosm of this game is Jacob Murphy was at one point getting booed by Newcastle's fans because he missed two very good opportunities.

Then he scored a couple and was cheered to the rafters.

Then he was substituted and got a standing ovation.

So

never let it be said that Newcastle fans are in any way fickle, but they're no different to any other fans in that regard, I suppose.

And they will argue that it was their incentivisation that

propelled Murphy on to score two goals.

But I think the honeymoon is already very much over for

Rude Van Nisselroy because some of Leicester's defending here was farcical, slapstick, comical,

and he is a lot more to do.

I fell for Danny Ward, you know, because you want to get a good, solid first touch of the ball and he did, but it was picking the ball out of the net after coming on.

I think

twice after four minutes, he came on at half-time and twice after four minutes he conceded.

So, yeah, I think that that's the thing.

Hermanson's obviously a very, he's a very good goalkeeper, or he's a very busy goalkeeper.

Um, and I read some

busy that he has like other jobs or other teams to play for.

Well,

maybe that's where he went at half-time.

Somewhere to be got another game.

They'd they've allowed Leicester have allowed 74 shots in the three games that Rude van Nustroy has been manager.

So, obviously, they've they've been good in

uh sort of offensively, but that is way too many.

And yeah,

as Baz said, I think Baz and Beaver would have had a field day.

The one thing I would say is when

the scorer was still only 1-0 to Newcastle, Bruno Guimara should definitely have been sent off.

He was very, very, very lucky.

Are you saying the dive and the challenge, or just the challenge itself was a red?

I think the challenge itself was enough for a red, but certainly he got away with one for the dive under a complete non-challenge from Yannick Vestergaard.

I'm not sure it would have made much of a difference, but we will never know.

We will never know.

And that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll begin with Nottingham Forest's late victory over Aston Villa.

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

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Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So Forest 2, Villa 1.

Sorry, Dan.

Before the result, a word on Emi Martinez's save at 0-0, Match the Day, Sky Sports Pundits calling it the greatest save of all time.

Feels astronomy.

I mean, it was very good, Dan, but I don't know.

Where does it fit on

the scale of saves of all time in the history of all football matches?

I mean, I've probably not seen every save from every football match that's ever been on, but

I think it would be up there.

I think it's more the unique nature of the save i think it's a brilliant save but i don't think i've ever seen a save like that so it's so unique so does that make it the best save of all time i feel that someone less biased than me should should should answer the question because i have arguments with people all the time about why emi martinez is the is the best goalkeeper in the world and factually he is the best goalkeeper in the world because he's won the award for the the last two years but i will say i was upset with him conceding the conceding the first goal he made that save and then i've kind of felt like he after that he should have saved Forrest's first goal.

Yeah, maybe.

I don't think he is the best.

I don't know who is, but I think there's just a lot of chat about.

He's good.

You've got to offer an alternative.

If you're going to say he's not, you've got to offer an alternative, Max.

I would argue it's not even his best save because, in context, the save he made in the knockings of the World Cup final with his foot to deny Sam Bappe, wasn't it?

I know Umuana.

Yeah, I would say that's better.

Given the occasion.

Yeah, well, does context, where does context come into,

you know, is a way to forest, you know, in a sort of it's not meaningless.

It means something, but, you know, the context of Gordon Banks and Pele, like, like, I don't, I don't know.

But yes, I can't offer you an alternative.

So I but I'm not withdrawing it.

I mean, there were some very good saves this weekend.

Jordan Pickford had a couple.

Dean Henderson was very good for Crystal Palace.

He made a few good saves.

But I think this was standout.

It was miraculous.

And he slightly took the gloss off it then by letting in that soft one for Forest Equalizer.

But yeah, the spin he puts on it is sort of that was the thing.

It's so clever.

It's so clever.

And the speed of thought.

Maybe he is the best goalkeeper in the world.

But what happened, Dan?

He's sad.

I

completely derailed and ruined my weekend.

I've still not fully recovered from it.

It's horrible to be winning a game in the 87th minute and to come out with nothing.

You've got to be smart enough to at least walk away with a point from that.

And Villa have always been really good at seeing out games under Una Emery, but this season they've not been as brilliant at doing it.

And I do think in the context of the game, Forrest's substitution swung the game in their direction and Villa's subs kind of made them a little bit worse.

I thought taking Villa's best player off Kamara just before stoppage we entered stoppage time.

I thought that was strange because I thought he'd been excellent and still looked like he was getting around the pitch and he's just really, really crucial to what Villa are doing.

And and they've started winning games again since bouber carcumara's come back i think forest have been brilliant this season i've got a lot of time for forest as a club and new no away historically has been a difficult game for villa i think we even lost to them when he was spurs manager so villa have never done well against new no sides away from home but

i think a draw probably would have been a fair result but i do also think in in the game that elliott anderson's refereeing immunity maybe played a part in forest getting the result because i thought i did think it was a penalty and i I did think it was a foul on Mattie Cash as well.

There was a, I can't remember which game it was.

I think it was, no, I can't remember what game it was, but there was a very similar foul that was that was given and a goal disallowed.

And I just think, I think VIR are so reluctant to overrule the referee when the referee hasn't given something.

But I think it's a foul in both cases.

Yeah, I would also say,

just to add a little bit of Billy balance, that

Morgan Rodgers did foul

Elliot Anderson before Elliot Anderson fouled him.

So there was a bit of six of one house,

you started

Matthias, couldn't you?

Maybe he's got a defence to say that Ipswich bloke said something really before he nicked his glasses.

A smiling Nuno, the dying Jedi lives, Robin.

They're fourth Nottingham Forest.

Very unnerving seeing him like that, I've got to say.

Yeah, no, they were great.

I think actually, I agree with Dan that the substitutions, Elanga in particular, he made a big impact, didn't he?

That was first goal in 10 months.

But it was just, you know, they had that goal disallowed for offside that was like, you know, half an inch offside, wasn't it?

And from just then, they just were relentless, Forrest.

They just kept on going and going and getting that momentum.

And, you know, Nuno, once he gets a settle side, it's like his Wolves side, you could name the 11 pretty much, couldn't you, every single week?

And it's very similar with this with this Forrest team.

You know, it was with Wolves, it was sort of Metinho Neves in the midfield and that front three of Giotto Jimenez and Treore and it's kind of it's very it's very similar but he's got a few more players off the bench and yeah it's really really impressive and I saw that they've got eight wins already Forrest the last and last season they had to wait till May to get to eight wins.

So yeah, they're doing exceptionally well.

Good recruitment as well, I've got to say.

Their sense about pairing of Malenkovich and Murillo.

I don't know how much they combined came to, but we've all laughed at Forrest's scattergun recruitment over the years, but actually they've signed some really good players and they have got a nice balance.

Yeah, Malenkovich actually is another player that gets into barry's dream fiverr sing along with anthony robinson lewis and you've left out ethan yeah well there it is there's the team christian benteke on the bench um arsenal nil everton nil more drop points for arsenal than you know they've they've won eight games like forest so you know they've failed to win half their games they're on 30 points this season they were on 36 points last season they were on 40 points the season before i mean it's too much barry of a stretch to say they they're going backwards um and jordan pickford was brilliant in this game, but if you're not beating Everton at home, you're not winning the league.

It feels that simple.

I don't think it is a stretch to say they're going backwards.

I mean,

you've got to win games like this if you want to be considered a serious title contending outfit.

And they simply didn't.

I think they don't have enough star performers.

Martin Ordegaard wasn't great in this game

and was taken off after an hour.

Bakayo Saka is their only player who consistently delivers week in, week out, and was good again here.

Martinelli, Trossard

aren't contributing much to the cause.

Gabriel Jesus

looks a shadow of the shadow of the player he once was.

And Raheem Sterling didn't get off the bench in this game, so he's obviously considered unusable,

which seems odd given we know know what he can do, but

presume Michel Arteta has his reasons for this.

Look, on another day, Arsenal scored two goals and it's an easy three points, but Everton

through just a good defensive performance, an excellent performance from Jordan Pickford, and a little bit of luck kept them out.

And this is happening too often to Arsenal at the moment.

I watched 90 minutes of this game, and I wish I hadn't because

it was a real bore.

He was a tough watch but I thought Arteta's substitutions were a bit strange obviously Rice was injured so I take that one away that that's absolutely fine but when he spoke after the game he said he took Erdegaard off for tactical reasons and I'm not saying he was having his best game but it was quite clear from watching the game that if Arsenal were going to score it was going to come from combination play from Saka and Erdegaard and as soon as you take Erdegaard away away from that I think it just impacts the team and we saw that when he when he wasn't there for the month or six weeks that he wasn't there that they're just not as fluid going forward and Arteta kind of then moves away from the kind of set formation that they have and he's chucking on attackers and they've got players playing everywhere and they just just lost any kind of semblance of of control arsenal i didn't ever think they really looked like they were going to score and it it's all going to just come back round to do they need a bona fide centre forward in this arsenal side to take them to the next level yeah you can see sean dice a real badge of honor not conceding from an arsenal corner he'll probably have a t-shirt made you know you know i went to arsenal and i didn't concede from one of those.

Bournemouth play West Ham tonight.

West Ham becoming the Monday night football staple.

Are they being hidden on a Monday?

It seems harsh on neutrals when they've watched all that football over the weekend, have to then get themselves up for a West Ham game on a Monday.

But anyway, good luck to both of them.

We'll talk about it on

Thursday's part, I think.

Fitbar corner, Barry.

Scottish League Cup final was quite the game.

Yeah, it was a thriller.

And the first ever major Scottish final between Rangers and Celtic that was decided by penalties.

But yeah, first of all, we had a

preceding the shootout a three all ding-dong.

Rangers went a goal up through Mohamed Duyamande, then went two-one down goals from Taylor and Dysine Meeda.

Rangers pegged it back to two two Di Yamande again with a goal.

Then went three, two down, Nicholas Kuhn giving Celtic what looked like a winner in the eighty-seven minute.

minute but then a minute later Danilo equalized they went into extra time Rangers complained afterwards they said they should have had a penalty in extra time for a leading scales tug on Vlakov Cherny

but the officials decided it was outside the box so they only got a free kick and

Celtic won the shootout and they scored all their penalties.

Rid Van Yilmaz missed for Rangers.

He took a weak penalty saved by Casper Schmeichel.

I think it was their second last penalty.

And Maeda scored the decisive spot kick for Celtic.

We also saw Jack Butland, the Rangers keeper, take a penalty, which is always fun.

He didn't quite press minute, but he scored.

There was trouble outside the ground before the game.

People out doing their Christmas shopping in Glasgow city centre had the added bonus of seeing marauding fans from both teams fighting in the streets.

And Ewan Murray was quite corrupting in his match report.

Actually, he mentioned that both sets of fans were setting off illegal pyro.

Both sets of fans were drumming out the greatest hits from their songbooks.

No doubt they will each claim that their sectarian songs are not as sectarian as the other lots of sectarian songs, because this is what we see all the time.

But Ewan wrote,

just on the back of this bad behaviour inside and outside the ground, the cowardice displayed by the football authorities and clubs in dealing with rising misbehaviour in stands is coming home to roost.

Supporters are emboldened.

The Scottish Government should be insisting that football's executives, hide-and-seek champions, start to act in a manner even mildly relating to their positions of power.

So

yeah, it was a good game, but

slightly diminished by the bad behaviour from both sets of fans.

Robin, Oxford United, have parted company with Des Buckingham.

Had a great start, didn't you, this season, but have fallen off a little bit.

I'm very, very sad.

I'm very, very sad.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, very.

Yeah, no, it's not been, you know, one win in 15, which, you know, you'd think normally, yes, you know, that's obviously, you know, the crosshairs will be for you, but

got us promoted out of when there was no chance of that.

Run didn't feel like that.

He's from Oxford.

He cares.

He's a great spokesman for the club.

He's spoken a lot about mental health.

And yeah, had a great start to the season, sort of bounced into it after winning the playoffs.

It has gone a bit sour.

Yeah, it's a bit on a difficult run, but I've got to say, it's really interesting because this has gone down

really badly with the fan base, extremely badly.

We're one point above the relegation zone.

So we kind of, you know,

but favourites to go down, you know, at the start of the season.

I would have taken this at, you know, at this stage of the season, actually, um, with a bit of recruitment in January, uh, the club have acted, but yeah, um, if anyone's more interested, we did an emergency podcast for Radio Oxford yesterday, the dub.

Um, but yeah, um, the sports editor, Jerome Sale, who did the phone in after the game lost to Shefford Wednesday, said there were out of a hundred calls, texts, tweets, one person said they wanted the manager out.

And I've got to say the reaction.

And that was the chairman.

That was the chairman of Oxus.

Yeah, interesting that he chose that forum to text into local radio to do it.

But it's just, it is interesting because also this, it's a huge gamble because, as I say, yeah, it's gone down like a cup of sick.

And the whoever comes in next is going to have to be pretty bloody spectacular to sort of appease the fan base.

So yeah, interesting times.

Yeah.

They'll have to down that cup of sick before they start, which

also at the weekend, Channing Tatum was at the race course along with Ryan Reynolds.

As Cambridge United got a 2-2 draw, and it was absolutely marvelous with a late penalty.

Delighted.

Well done.

Finally, Shane says, Hi, Max Barry, and whoever is on the panel at the time of reading.

After hearing David Squires impressively flog his new book on a recent pod, I duly went and did my duty as an avid and non-paying supporter of The Guardian and bought it.

Upon ordering the book, I then received a mail saying they're currently reprinting the book due to the unforeseen demand and that supply will be delayed.

No problem, however, the date for the stock being available surprised me somewhat.

I could barely believe my eyes when I read the date.

The 5th of December 3924.

See attached photo.

Could you please tell those at the Guardian bookshop that while I accept waiting a certain amount of time is normal, I find that 1,900 years is mildly excessive.

Thanks for the pod and all the hard work you do, and especially Philippe, who is my favourite.

Please pass le bonjour and sava from me, from Shane.

Is there a media agenda against my club?

You never mention it.

RC Strasbourg Alsace.

13th in Liga.

Great away win at Le Havre on Sunday afternoon.

Congratulations.

So that'll do for today.

We're recording, by the way, our Christmas Q ⁇ A special tomorrow evening to be released on Christmas Eve.

The script is currently empty, apart from Barry's seventh retelling of the header he scored as a child.

So

please send us some questions on any subject.

It's me, Baz Wilson and Bruin, I believe.

Football Weekly at theguardian.com.

Football Weekly at theguardian.com.

And can I just say hello to Daniel, who as a man in a car who drove very slowly past me and then stopped and then went his window and said, I'm listening to you.

I'm listening to John Bruin right now.

So that was a very nice surprise.

I was cycling to work this morning.

Can I say say hello to the nice woman whose name I didn't get, who was buying drinks, a round of drinks in my local pub last night and clocked me and went, oh, you're Barry from that Football Weekly podcast, aren't you?

And I said, I am.

And my mates who were present all went, oh, fuck,

here we go.

Not again, blah, blah, blah.

And she went, yeah, my partner's really into you.

and uh, I often hear him listening, or when we're lying in bed at night, you know, he's listening to you, and I always refer to you as those dreary men.

So, which I have to say perked my friends up, no end.

Well, to these dreary men, we say that's enough.

Uh, that'll do for today.

Uh, oh, sorry, and what one further uh, PS, I think, having referred in the past to uh, Mr.

Bardell's Instagram offerings, we really need to give a shout out to the Bardell family in their festive matching pajamas.

Which

you bet.

Max said I was going to get a five-pod ban, and then I did that.

And I've actually put the bottoms on the

protest, just to prove that Max doesn't have the power to give me a ban.

I've actually done the podcast in the pajama bottoms.

Your Instagram is, for me, the gift that keeps on giving banana.

It's a window to a world that I don't inhabit.

But, you know, to you and your matching pajamas.

I'm surprised you've never done the matching pajamas, family man like you.

I'm surprised that's never been forced upon you at Christmas.

Oh, that's coming.

Now he's going to be family of friends.

Mrs.

Rustin's doctor.

Max just has a frankie says relax t-shirt.

That's covered in sick and beer stain.

I nearly went full pajama for the pod, but I did bottle it.

I bottled it.

It's all content.

You know, that's the future.

So, you know, I, but if you see me and Mrs.

Rushton and young Ian, and, you know, the next one in matching pajamas,

you have you are within your rights to issue a five-pod ban for me.

But that will do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Barry.

Thank you.

Thanks, Dan.

Thank you.

Thanks, Robin.

Thanks, Mark.

Four Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Steven.

This is The Guardian.